From: jmmuehlman [jmmuehlman@lisco.com]
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2001 10:07 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598
Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598
The Food and Drug Administration must
1) require mandatory pre-market safety testing
2) require pre-market environmental review
3) require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered (GE) foods
The FDA must require mandatory pre-market comprehensive environmental review. Unlike conventional pollutants where a given amount of pollutant causes a limited amount of damage, a small number of mutant genes could have a population explosion and reproduce forever, causing unlimited and irreparable damage.
The FDA must require mandatory pre-market long-term health testing. GE products could be toxic, cause allergic responses, have lower nutritional value, and compromise immune responses in consumers.
The FDA must require mandatory labeling of GE products. Without mandatory labeling, neither consumers nor health professionals will know if an allergic or toxic reaction was the result of a genetically engineered food. Consumers would be deprived of the critical knowledge needed to hold food producers liable should any of these novel products be hazardous.
The FDA must end its cozy relationship with the industries it purports to be regulating. People have been allowed to work for a biotech company, then work for the FDA writing the regulatory rules on that company's product, then go back to working for the company. Ninety-two percent of FDA advisory committee meetings had at least one conflict of interest.
From John M. Muehlman, Ph.D.
1835 Stagecoach Trail
Fairfield, Iowa 52556